He seems to be lucky enough this time to still be able to get directly into the main draw of the AO
And what's that about the doubling points? Is it also a part of the new system? Or you mean that since next year there is a rise in points, and e.g. 5 points of the first round turn into 10, we should consider 30 points as 60?

Actually there is also a lovely Challenger in New Caledonia that week
Besides, I'd rather believe it's going to be Week 3: AO, Week 4/5: Rest
And then he still has high chances for Marseille WC, and Rotterdam qualies would probably be a better option than a Challenger considering again the new ranking points system.

Anyway it's a great idea to make such a schedule for Arnaud, it's going to be fun to see how different our and his actual schedules will be!

At Rotterdam Qualies he will have great supporters
Maybe Marseille too this year, don't know if I can manage to go yet

You're right I'm a little bit schematic It will be tough to improve his ranking and the qualies of 250 & 500 will have high level I suppose but he has 6 month to do a performance
I scheduled some challengers because it can be good for confidence if you don't play good, but if you have a smart start Rotterdam's qualies are a better choice of course.

actually it's hard to say (unless we run some scenarios) what will be the best strategy to 'play' this new ranking system next year. he may earn more points playing challengers, rather than playing qualies and doesn't make it to the main field, or just getting to 1st or 2nd round. so it isn't so much different from now, even though challenger's points don't get raised as much as the 500 and 250 on average.

actually it's hard to say (unless we run some scenarios) what will be the best strategy to 'play' this new ranking system next year. he may earn more points playing challengers, rather than playing qualies and doesn't make it to the main field, or just getting to 1st or 2nd round. so it isn't so much different from now, even though challenger's points don't get raised as much as the 500 and 250 on average.

I don't know if it was posted on GM or not, anyway there was a German article with quite an interesting review. The author has recalculated some players' points earned this year according to the new system and made a certain comparison of two systems.

Hewitt and Haas are two who played not so many tournaments but those were big tournaments - and these guys would have the biggest points increase. Devilder and Daniel mostly played Challenger events, but they were doing very good, each of them won 3 Challenger titles. Hernandez usually took part in not big ATP tournaments, something that as we see wouldn't bring him a large profit if we had a different system already this year. Petzschner could normally be seen at Challenger circuit, too, but he didn't take a title. Though he won ATP Vienna tournament, but it's a "250" event, not a big one, and the difference for this kind of events this and next year is minimal. But if was a "500" event, in this case his points increase would be +44,6%.
(http://zackstennis.blogspot.com/2008...-doppelte.html)

So according to this review the best ways to earn points next year are either play (or at least try to qualify for) bigger tournaments or do very well, i.e. win, Challengers - which is, as I believe, not easy at all. Maybe it is indeed good for confidence, but still it's necessary to win 5 consecutive matches to take the victory.

"Those who are skilful and really the best ones don't have a bad luck [reasons of their falls are in themselves only]." - Ole Einar Bjørndalen, who is not just best of the best; he can do everything.

I don't know if it was posted on GM or not, anyway there was a German article with quite an interesting review. The author has recalculated some players' points earned this year according to the new system and made a certain comparison of two systems.

Hewitt and Haas are two who played not so many tournaments but those were big tournaments - and these guys would have the biggest points increase. Devilder and Daniel mostly played Challenger events, but they were doing very good, each of them won 3 Challenger titles. Hernandez usually took part in not big ATP tournaments, something that as we see wouldn't bring him a large profit if we had a different system already this year. Petzschner could normally be seen at Challenger circuit, too, but he didn't take a title. Though he won ATP Vienna tournament, but it's a "250" event, not a big one, and the difference for this kind of events this and next year is minimal. But if was a "500" event, in this case his points increase would be +44,6%.
(http://zackstennis.blogspot.com/2008...-doppelte.html)

So according to this review the best ways to earn points next year are either play (or at least try to qualify for) bigger tournaments or do very well, i.e. win, Challengers - which is, as I believe, not easy at all. Maybe it is indeed good for confidence, but still it's necessary to win 5 consecutive matches to take the victory.

thanks for posting this i hadn't seen it before.

who's up for doing the points for our arnaud?

actually i think for all tournaments, not just for challengers, one would get proportionally more points to win it, under the new system. i don't remember how hewitt or haas performed this past year, did they ever advance to some latter stage of a bigger tournament? but yes it should also be more advantageous getting to semis of the slams or masters than semis of a small tournament, relatively speaking (and most certainly if we speak absolutely!)

in summary, points under the new system will be biased towards --> winners or bigger tournaments. you can't say they aren't giving incentives in the right direction... whether or not this makes it harder for rising stars, i have to wait and see. cos it will punish big stars not performing as well, and such players should fall just as hard.

so what a player like arnaud should do? there's no guarantee which way he'll earn more. he may not qualify for bigger tournaments, but he may not win the 5 matches in a challenger either. he's doomed

After his new loss in first round i did a points projection considering a first round exit in each tournament He has 1121 points, he could have 1059 after Rosmalen & only 569 after Wimbledon. This week with 569 points he would have been #135.

We can think that with 750 points you can enter directly USO so Arno will need to win around 200 points in the next three tournaments Rosmalen Wimbledon & Newport. Tough His last best result is already 20 points that's why winning only first round matches are useless.

It seems he has plan to play a lot this summer so he could improve his ranking but hard to imagine he will avoid USO qualies this year.

As i was fun to read in all articles lately The french veteran Arnaud Clement I checked the ranking of the veterans players this week. I consider veteran a player born before 1980. In bold there are the players older than Arno.

#17 Stepanek born in november 1978
#18 Blake born in december 1979
#22 Haas born in april 1978
#25 Karlovic born in february 1979#42 Santoro born in december 1972
#59 Christophe Rochus born in december 1978#61 Moya born in august 1976
#64 Ljubicic born march in 1979
#72 Hernandez born in april 1978
#73 Marcos Daniel born in july 1978#75 Gicquel born in march 1977
#80 Kendrick born in november 1979
#84 Hernych born in july 1979
#85 Massu born in october 1979
#91 Kevin Kim born in july 1978#96 Schuettler born in april 1976
#100 Albert Martin born in august 1978
#101 Ruben Ramirez Hildago born in january 1978#106 Lapentti born in august 1976
#113 Luczak born in august 1979
#121 Roitman born in may 1979
#125 Russel born in may 1978#124 Arno born in december 1977#128 Kiefer born in july 1977#131 Spadea born in july 1974#148 Lee born in january 1976#149 Koubek born in january 1977
#150 Levy born in august 1978
#154 Hrbaty born in january 1978
#156 Vanek born in april 1978#162 Canas born in november 1977
#165 Chela born in august 1979#168 De Chaunac born in october 1977
#189 Lisnard born in september 1979

This week there are 34 players born before 1980 in the top 200 = 17%. 11 are older than Arno with 5 with a better ranking. We can conclude is a veteran in the single ranking

As i was fun to read in all articles lately The french veteran Arnaud Clement I checked the ranking of the veterans players this week. I consider veteran a player born before 1980. In bold there are the players older than Arno.

#17 Stepanek born in november 1978
#18 Blake born in december 1979
#22 Haas born in april 1978
#25 Karlovic born in february 1979#42 Santoro born in december 1972
#59 Christophe Rochus born in december 1978#61 Moya born in august 1976
#64 Ljubicic born march in 1979
#72 Hernandez born in april 1978
#73 Marcos Daniel born in july 1978#75 Gicquel born in march 1977
#80 Kendrick born in november 1979
#84 Hernych born in july 1979
#85 Massu born in october 1979
#91 Kevin Kim born in july 1978#96 Schuettler born in april 1976
#100 Albert Martin born in august 1978
#101 Ruben Ramirez Hildago born in january 1978#106 Lapentti born in august 1976
#113 Luczak born in august 1979
#121 Roitman born in may 1979
#125 Russel born in may 1978#124 Arno born in december 1977#128 Kiefer born in july 1977#131 Spadea born in july 1974#148 Lee born in january 1976#149 Koubek born in january 1977
#150 Levy born in august 1978
#154 Hrbaty born in january 1978
#156 Vanek born in april 1978#162 Canas born in november 1977
#165 Chela born in august 1979#168 De Chaunac born in october 1977
#189 Lisnard born in september 1979

This week there are 34 players born before 1980 in the top 200 = 17%. 11 are older than Arno with 5 with a better ranking. We can conclude is a veteran in the single ranking

thanks, useless info turns out to be quite interesting

i consider this age group the 'lost generation' - underachievers as far as the very top of tennis is concerned... only moya had been to #1, and there were others who have retired early... but the survivors do last long!

fabrice is by far the 'french veteran'... and the highest ranked too

arno hasn't done too badly... at least he's still in one piece, faking injury for his summer break (and still dating a pretty and famous gf)